516 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Called to the President's Chair in 1885 in succession to Lord 

 Aberdare, he found the Society in very troublous times indeed, 

 attributable to two chief causes : (1) the lavish expenditure on 

 buildings at South Kensington erected on land of which the 

 Society had no proper tenure, and (2) the degradation of the 

 Society caused by a turning away from the pursuit of Horticulture 

 to the promotion of London society entertainment gardens. 

 Sir Trevor's inborn love of gardening taught him at once that a 

 sort of imitation German Riergarten was by no means the ideal 

 for the Royal Horticultural Society to aim at. And his practical 

 experience told him that the upkeep of the vast buildings and 

 garden at South Kensington (which then covered almost the whole 

 area from the Albert Hall down to the Cromwell Road) was 

 impossible in the then existing state of the Society's finances. 



For two or three years he laboured to see if matters could in 

 any way be mended. But it was hopeless (as we can now see) 

 from the very first, and towards the end of 1886 he realized that 

 nothing but the most drastic treatment would avail — the expenses 

 of South Kensington must be cut off and the Society must return 

 to the policy of its original institution, " Horticulture pure and 

 simple," or the Society must die. 



Some of the members of the Council, not being in entire 

 sympathy with the President's views, retired, and at his suggestion 

 much new blood was brought into the Council, together with a new 

 Treasurer, the present Sir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G., and a new 

 Secretary, the Rev. W. Wilks, both of whom were absolutely of 

 the President's way of thinking on the necessity of retrenchment 

 and a return to a purely horticultural policy. As a result of this, 

 South Kensington was abandoned and Horticulture pursued. 

 But even yet, the very existence of the Society was trembling 

 in the balance. There were but 552 subscribing Fellows left, and 

 the total annual income from all sources was less than £3,000 a 

 year ; and on these slender means the Society had to be newly 

 built up and the garden at Chiswick maintained. The success of 

 the new policy was not long, however, in declaring itself, and 

 every year as it went by brought in the adhesion of new Fellows, 

 and the progress of the old Society went on without a single set- 

 back, so that, in 1904, the centennial year, Sir Trevor had the joy 

 of presiding at the opening of a New Hall in Vincent Square 

 (due in great measure to the generosity of the late Baron 

 Schroder) and also at the opening of a New Garden at Wisley, 

 in Surrey, presented by Sir Thomas Hanbury. 



Sir Trevor resigned the presidency on April 1, 1913, after 

 having devoted twenty-eight years of his life to the reorganiza- 



